Hi all,

Very haapi to get to post in this section. My first true love and introduction to plant medicines and though i dont indulge these days, im very gratful that i now get to learn from her through cultivation.

So for this pest situation im curious to find a spray, if needed, that wont be harmul to newly forming flowers.

I found this little guy loungin on a leaf this morning, but didnt have time to really give a thorough inspection. Sorry for the horrible photo, this thing didnt wanna cooperate first thing in the morning, but as far as i know it may be the only one to be hangin around.

There may be no pest problem whatoever. To be honest, id rather not have to spray or kill any little bug or worm i might find. As long as theres no damage being done, then its for all to enjoy.

If needed tho, is there a safest choice for a flowering plant?? Is there anything out there i can use in the future to deter rather than exterminate??

Thanks for reading and any suggestions. Peace

Look into thuricide, see if that fits your situation.

Thanks for the suggestion Loveall

After quickly browsing the SDS, im not sure if this is for me. Maybe at an earlier stage, but im hesitant to introduce any pesticide that ive no experience with right now.

Have you had good experience with this?? Anyone else ??

That’s a common inchworm. They rarely, if ever, form large populations capable of harming a healthy plant. I would remove them when you see them. Certain caterpillars will poop in and on the forming buds and cause rotting from the inside as the plant matures. But that is an issue mostly with corn ear worm.

I farmer cannabis fulltime for 12 years. I have never batted an eye at an inchworm.

Good luck

-Lover

These guys are all over and way mg rhw leaves off my heirloom hibiscus plants. Daily neem oil treatments have fought them back, a weekly dusting of Diatomaceous earth I think helps too

This is very good to hear, thank you for the good news.

Thank you both Loveall and Loverofallthings for the love .

For future reference, is there a safer alternative than pesticides during flowering?

The neem oil I have is labled organic

Google says that neem is non toxic to birds, bees, and mammals.

I use about 4 tbls of neem per gallon of water in my sprayer.

I've been happy with the results, just required reapplication regularly.

Which SDS did you look at? As I understand it, it is a bacterial biological control. I use it for salvia which the army worms like to destroy in my area if I don't introduce this bacteria.

https://en.m.wikipedia.o...i/Bacillus_thuringiensis

From the people who sell it (who may not be objective though):

INSECT KILLER - This pest control is great for use on redhumped caterpillars, cabbage looper, diamondback moth, omnivorous leafroller, tent caterpillar, and many more.
PROTECTS VEGETABLES, FRUITS, NUTS, SHADE TREES & ORNAMENTALS - Thuricide is designed for use on a variety of plants including almonds, apples, pears, cherries, grapes, oranges, celery, broccoli, cabbage, pecans plus shade trees and ornamentals.
CONTAINS BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS - The active ingredient of this product is Bacillus thuringiensis, also known as Bt. Bt is a natural occurring, soil-borne bacteria that has been used since the 1950s for natural insect control.
FAST ACTING FORMULA - Thuricide is a bacterium which is selectively toxic to many moth and butterfly larvae. The insects stop feeding and die within 2-3 days of ingestion.
EASY TO APPLY - Product instantly mixes with water and should be applied as a spray using a mist blower, hose-end sprayer or pressurized hand sprayer. Product can be applied up to the day of harvest.

https://www.bonide.com/retail-support/sds/

Halfway down the list is the file , product # 802.

I may have misinterpretd what i read.

The environmental precautions in section 6, handeling instructions in sect 7, and the Regulatory information in section 15 had given me the impression that spraying on a flowering plant would not be desireable.

There is alo a thuricide produce #806, but i havent opened that.file yet.

Never used neem oil either DS. I see it referred to pretty often but havent had a need to ever use it yet.

Hi all CatPharm welcome aboard. It's very nice to grow your herb. This is an incredible herb that is pleasurable not only in its use, but also in its cultivation. Each plant is uniquely beautiful in itself way. CatPharm you can use many organic repelents. Not to kill the pest, but to banish them. At the same time, when you use organic repellents, you do not use toxic substances. With organic repelents there is no quarantine period. Then no toxins remain in the final product and many more ecofriendly benefits. Many of the organic repelents in same way many natural repellents are both repellents and fertilizers because the extract itself contains nutrients. (for example, a nettle repellent.)


Normally for caterpillars i use bacteria and fungus repellent (mycorrhiza) with which I inoculated the soil and the plant from the very beginning of the growing.From the Symbiosis the plant receive macro and micro nutrients from the beneficial soil bacteria and fungi, but the some of the beneficial soil bacteria and fungi are used as a repellent and for protecton for many pest species and many pathogenic diseases, as symbiosis is thought to be found in plants with beneficial bacteria and fungi for example some of this bacteria directly affecting gastroenteric properties of caterpillars. Caterpillars slowdown the clapping and eating, and after sometime it stop at all or the do not come at all. Because they perceive the plant as less attractive to eat and prefer to eat something else.

Long time ago I used a lot of neem oil (various essential oils) , I can share my personal experience with you. Neem oil is a very effective broad-spectrum pesticide and fungicide, but it doesn't help against everything. Against most caterpillars, neem oil does not help. It would rather help against their butterflies, not the caterpillars. Also, overeating with neem oil can build up Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS) and that is Azadirachtin (neem) poisoning. For example i did not spray late in the flower with neem and i do not overreat with neem even in the vegitation, because 1 case where I overdid it and it affected the taste in the end in buds. That was the first reason I stopped using the neem. The next reason is that neem oil affects my fungal balance, and I use mycorrhiza (fungi) at the roots of the plant. Do not get me wrong. I still keep 1 bottle of 10 ml of pure neem oil concentrate, as well as tea tree oil, lavender, orange and many other essential oils in my emergency home box used for human, animals, plants, cleaning and so on.

More info about Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS) and that is Azadirachtin (neem) poisoning:
https://steemit.com/cannabis/@drutter/cannabis-hyperemesis-syndrome-chs-is-actually-azadirachtin-neem-poisoning?fbclid=iwar0cudl0w5jnwivl5v5wc1sfojnt7gqn0-dvckfhxigsg09a3p40gad91vm

Neem oil poisoning: Case report of an adult with toxic encephalopathy :
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih...pmc/articles/PMC3841499/



Against all caterpillars you can take 50 grams of dried basil leaves and stems and you can soaked the dried basil for 24 hours in 1 liter of non hlorine water. Then you spray the leafs of the plant with this extract (1 l water + 50 gams dry basil mix from leaves and stems), but if the caterpillar is inside the stem it should be cut to clean.
If the caterpillars are on the leaves you can add many other staff to strengthen the decoction. (mainly odorless plants and vegetables, as well as vinegar)

In many cases, animals have some receptors more advanced than humans. Most often these are taste and odor receptors. This is why the highly odorant extracts affect so much their (un)willingness to eat something ( your plant) .

Be well and good luck with the project .

Tis the only pesticide I have xp with except DE, i recommend trying it, it's held back everything that's been beating up my garden.

I want to echo what Loveall said as well:

Thuricide is just BT. Bacillus Thuringiensis. Organic compatible, many products are OMRI listed. It’s the only defense against the corn ear worm and it’s the first thing I would look to for a similar caterpillar species if I ever had a problem. It’s a bacteria, one that probably already exists on your plant in lower concentrations.

If you run into a major issue, and I suspect that you will not, with an army of inch worms, this is the active ingredient you are looking for. But really- one inch worm isn’t going to harm your girls.

-Lover

I wouldn't worry about that at all. Just pick it off... if you see any more just pick those too. No need to spray em.

When you remove them I would take them all the way outside of the house though just to be sure they find a better plant to set up camp on.

Personally I wouldn't worry about those generic sections. I think it would be hard to find anything with an SDS without that kind of general verbage. Looks like of you don't drink it and wash your hands and apply it at least one day before harvest it's all good.

The key section I look at is hazard identification (section II), and there are no concerns there.

The bacteria should not affect flowers. It's just there to be part of the ecosystem and keep leaf eating crawlers in balance (the more crawlers there are, the more the bacteria will reproduce and viceversa until a balance is achieved). It helps mostly on new soil mixes from stores or urban lawn areas that may lack a complex biome. Older rich soils probably have this bacteria already as others have mentioned.

so in flowering the is not much you can do spray wise at most i would use either straight water or water with a few drops of dawn dish soap.


what you can look into for pest management during flower is introducing predator insects into your grow room

neem oil is great during vegatative growth but i would suggest against using it during flower as it can stay on your bud and that stuff isnt good to be smoking